Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 15 March 2015

:: National ::

PwC man involved in spying: CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation, which has arrested five suspects in the corporate espionage racket, said that the investigation had revealed the alleged role of a representative of PricewaterhouseCoopers India in obtaining information from the Department of Economic Affairs.
The agency produced accused Paresh Chimanlal Buddhadev, a partner in Chitale & Associates, before a Mumbai court that granted his transit remand for being brought to Delhi. Another accused, Ram Niwas, Assistant in the Finance Ministry, was also sent to five days’ CBI custody.
According to the CBI, several mid-ranking officials in the Finance and the Commerce Ministries are under the scanner for alleged theft and sale of classified foreign investment policy papers, including those related to multi-retail brand business, to middlemen for further supply to over a dozen private firms.
The agency earlier arrested Mumbai-based accused Chartered Accountant Khemchand Gandhi, who had allegedly been procuring the documents, Ashok Kumar Singh, Under Secretary in the Department of Disinvestment; and Lala Ram Sharma, Section Officer in the Department of Economic Affairs. The three are in CBI custody.

SC gives one last chance to Sahara

The Supreme Court granted the Sahara group a last opportunity to raise bail money to its chief Subrata Roy and two directors in jail since March 2014.
A Special Bench of Justices T.S. Thakur, Anil R. Dave and A.K. Sikri, at one point, said the court had lost its patience with Sahara's repeated assurances that they would sell their assets soon to pay security for securing bail.
The Bench stopped short of going ahead and appointing ‘court receivers’ to take over from Sahara and initiate sale deals in a “transparent” manner.
But Sahara’s counsel and senior advocate Kapil Sibal prevailed over the court and requested to give his client “one last chance” to sell their assets and collect Rs. 6000 crore more required for bail security.
Mr. Sibal said the embattled group would find a buyer in the next two or three months.
Agreeing, the Bench told Mr. Sibal to give an “outline of any proposed deal to be shared within a week with the SEBI and amicus curiae.”
However, the court declined a plea for extension of special facilities to Mr. Roy in Tihar Jail precincts to negotiate with buyers, but increased the time window to communicate with proposed buyers from two hours to five. Mr. Roy and his two directors have also been allowed two laptops for their use.
The court had asked 65-year-old Roy to pay a total Rs 10,000 crore to get bail.
During the hearing, the Sahara group blamed Mirach Capital for the failure of the second proposed deal for selling of offshore properties.

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:: International :

Democracy jailed for 13 years: Nasheed’s party

Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in prison on a terrorism charge after what rights groups said was a “flawed” trial, sparking international concern.
Mr. Nasheed called on his supporters to take to the streets to protest against the sentence after a trial his party said was “blatantly politicised”.
“I appeal to all of you today to stay courageous and strong, to confront the dictatorial power of this regime,” his office quoted him as saying.
Mr. Nasheed, the Indian Ocean archipelago’s first democratically elected leader, had been arrested on February 22. He was convicted late on Friday under the country’s Anti-Terrorism Act for ordering the arrest of a chief judge, Abdullah Mohamed, when he was President in January 2012.
“The Anti-Terrorism Act, inter alia, classifies an act of terrorism to include kidnapping, holding as hostage or apprehending someone against their will or attempts to kidnap, hold hostage or apprehend someone without their will, for the extra judicial enforced disappearance of the sitting Chief Judge of Criminal Court,” sources told PTI, quoting the court judgement.
The 47-year-old was then taken to Dhoonidhoo prison on an island near the capital Male.
Mr. Nasheed’s lawyers resigned before the end of his brief trial, saying it was biased and aimed at destroying his political career.
The conviction came amid growing opposition to the government of President Abdulla Yameen and will effectively prevent Mr. Nasheed from running for President at the 2018 elections.
Mr. Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said the verdict dealt a blow to the young democracy seven years after it embraced multi-party elections following three decades of rule by former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
“Democracy jailed for 13 years on March 13, 2015,” said MDP spokeswoman Shauna Aminath. “Nothing good will come out of this.
It’s a sad, sad, sad day for the Maldives,” she added. The MDP said its lawyers would appeal Nasheed’s conviction in the high court.

:: Business and Economy :

Good response for residential properties at SBI’s e-auction

State Bank of India (SBI), successfully completed the e-auction of around Rs.1,200-crore worth of stressed assets with a good number of bids for residential properties, said a senior official.
“The e-auction got good response. The trend was more in favour of residential properties. We got a fair amount of bids from Chennai and Delhi,” Parveen Kumar Malhotra, Deputy Managing Director and Group Executive (Stressed Assets Management), told IANS.
“We are satisfied with the response that the auction got. We will be collecting feedback from the people and fine tune our next auction,” he added.
The bank had put on auction a mix of offices/shops/apartments/factory buildings and others numbering 300 properties.
Mr. Malhotra said the number of hits was large on the two websites where the properties were auctioned and the speed got slowed down.
“We had extended the auction time to compensate for the slow speed,” he said.
According to him, the bank had saved sizable outgo in terms of advertisement spend for auctioning the stressed assets.
As per the norms, advertisements should be given in two newspapers for every property auction but this time, the bank had consolidated all the properties to be auctioned and hence saved good sum, he said.
Agreeing that not all the 300 properties got sold, he said based on the feedback and the data collated, the bank would decide on going for next round of e-auction.
He said the banking major had taken a first step in this arena and could be the trend setter for others.

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:: Sports::

Geeta, Kavita win crowns

National Games gold medallists O. Geeta Devi and Kavita Devi recorded contrasting wins to take the honours in their respective categories in the National weightlifting championship.